Land Scandal Rattles Pinellas

By CARLOS MONCADA The Tampa Tribune

Published: Aug 2, 2007

CLEARWATER - For decades, Pinellas County has enjoyed a reputation for clean governance, with seldom a hint of impropriety.

Now a land deal between the county's elected property appraiser and the county commission, which a grand jury will begin examining today, is rocking county government and threatens to bring down long-serving top officials.

Already, County Attorney Susan Churuti has been suspended with pay pending the grand jury investigation into the commission's decision to pay $225,000 for Property Appraiser Jim Smith's 1.4 acres in the Tarpon Woods area of north Pinellas. Churuti represented both Smith and the commission in the transaction, which has raised questions about whether Smith received favorable treatment.

A similar move Tuesday to suspend County Administrator Steve Spratt died for lack of support from a majority of the seven commissioners. Spratt recommended commissioners approve the property purchase for stormwater control, which they did unanimously and without public discussion on June 5. Yet some commissioners now complain they did not receive all the facts surrounding the land deal.

Consequently, the entire Republican-led commission is under scrutiny as well as Smith, appraiser for 19 years; Churuti, attorney for 20 years; and Spratt, administrator for five years.

"I haven't seen anything like it since the county commissioners got indicted," said retired political consultant Mary Repper, who worked on Smith's first campaign for property appraiser in 1988.

Repper was referring to zoning scandals that beset the county in the mid-1970s. Three of five commissioners were sent to jail for accepting bribes from developers in exchange for favorable zoning votes.

"Since that time, the county has prided itself on stability and keeping things calm," said Repper, who lives in Brooksville. "There are certain blips on the radar screen that have happened, but nothing to this extent where the entire commission is being scrutinized and the county attorney. It's the entire breadth of county government, practically."

The county's purchase of vacant land that Smith had spent nine months trying to sell for $400,000 is perhaps more of an issue today among frustrated homeowners who cannot sell in Florida's slumping real estate market, Repper said.

"I think it magnified the issue," she said. "When the average Joe sees something like this it's like, 'How can this thing happen when I can't get any kind of relief?'"

Darryl Paulson, a professor of government at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg and a longtime political observer, said Pinellas government generally has been seen as "fairly clean and efficient" while Hillsborough County and Tampa have had their shares of "corruption, kickbacks and bribes."

"I can't understand why anyone, given their background and experience, would put themselves in the position they're in," Paulson said of Smith and Churuti.

Pinellas officials said the land was bought in the public interest because it is needed to help control flooding in the area. The purchase came four months after Smith's attorney sent a letter to the county, maintaining county workers ruined Smith's property by cutting trees and clearing debris after the 2004 storms.

The parcel was valued for tax purposes at $59,000 by Smith's office. Some people have questioned why the county paid more than four times that amount.

Yet it isn't the first time the commission bought land for far more than its assessed value. In 2002, the commission voted to pay $21.4 million for 88 acres in Palm Harbor that Smith's office had valued for tax purposes at about $5 million.

Smith said this week he could not comment on his land deal because of the pending grand jury inquiry. His Clearwater attorney, Louis Kwall, did not return a telephone call Wednesday from The Tampa Tribune.

Former Pinellas Commissioner Charles Rainey, who emerged from the 1970's zoning scandals untouched, said the grand jury could end up looking at "the whole process of county government," rather than just the land sale.

"When you call a grand jury, it doesn't necessarily stop with one subject," he said. "This can expand on and on and on."

Information from News Channel 8 was used in this report. Reporter Carlos Moncada can be reached at (727) 451-2333 or cmoncada@tampatrib.com.